Reliable crystal structure data of high quality play an important part in optimizing the development of new materials which foster innovation in various areas, for example, the production of printers working with Piezo crystals, or in the cement industry, if the properties of new cements are tested.

Crystallographic data can serve to explain and predict material properties. Therefore, all material testing laboratories and researchers at universities and research institutions are dependent on evaluated crystal structure data.

With ICSD (Inorganic Crystal Structure Database), FIZ Karlsruhe offers the world's most comprehensive database for fully identified inorganic crystal structures. ICSD contains records of about 120,000 crystal structures published since 1913. Each year, about 7,000 new structures are added.

"We place great emphasis on quality-approved, reliable data", explains Silke Rehme, Vice President Content and Services at FIZ Karlsruhe. "The data in ICSD are taken from reliable scientific publications or are directly provided by scientists. Before they are included into ICSD, they are quality-checked by scientists working at FIZ Karlsruhe. The existing data are regularly revised, corrected and updated."

Customers may choose the way of accessing ICSD data which best suits their needs. The data are offered as a web-based version on CD ROM; as a database made available through FIZ Karlsruhe's online service STN International; through a stand-alone web portal; and for integration into the intranets of research institutions and enterprises.

"The newly designed web portal has been developed with state-of-the-art software according to the customers' requirements", says Wendelin Detemple, Head FIZ Products and Services, Marketing and Sales. "It combines the flexibility of a browser interface with the functionalities of a graphical interface and offers powerful search and analysis functions."

ICSD is an indispensable source of information for all chemists, physicists, mineralogists and geologists working in the field of crystallography.

For more information on ICSD, please visit http://www.fiz-karlsruhe.de/icsd.html

FIZ KarlsruheHermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1,76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, GermanyPhone: +49 -7247-808-555, Fax +49-7247-808-259helpdesk@fiz-karlsruhe.de, www.fiz-karlsruhe.dePress contact:FIZ Karlsruhe, Rüdiger MackPhone: +49-7247-808-513, Fax +49-7247-808-134Ruediger.Mack@fiz-karlsruhe.deFor more than 30 years, FIZ Karlsruhe (www.fiz-karlsruhe.de) has been developing and providing high-quality services for information transfer and innovative solutions for knowledge management in research. Its main activities are the operation of the online service STN International which focuses on science and patent information and is operated together with Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), and the development of the KnowEsis product line offering e-Science solutions for web-based scientific work. FIZ Karlsruhe also produces databases and information services and operates scientific portals, mainly in mathematics, computer science, energy and crystallography. Primary literature can be ordered through the full-text broker serviceFIZ AutoDoc. FIZ Karlsruhe is a member of the Leibniz Association (WGL) which consists of 86 research and service institutions and six associate members. The Leibniz institutes' fields of activity include natural sciences, engineering, environmental sciences, business and social sciences, territorial planning and building research, and the humanities. The institutes handle strategic and subject-oriented issues of public interest and are therefore jointly sponsored by the German Federal Government and the German Federal States.

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